Rosalind Franklin’s tale is certainly worth telling. A brilliant biophysicist whose work was crucial to Watson and Crick’s discovery of the structure of DNA, she died at the age of thirty-seven. She worked tirelessly and undertook pioneering research in several fields, but the importance of her work on the double helix was only recognised some time after her death.

Rani Drew’s intention in writing The Unsung Heroine of the Double Helix was to consider the ethics of science. As explained in a prologue scene, the play is not about feminism but scientific conscience.

The message is laudable, but unfortunately a play will struggle to teach any sort of lesson if it does not firstly entertain, and Rani Drew’s creation could not be called entertaining, by any stretch of the imagination.

The play was so tethered by its commitment to portray the story accurately that the finished product was remarkable only for its dullness. A scene about a job interview felt exactly like a job interview, while a conversation between colleagues was like real-life water-cooler chitchat, only without the opportunity for a timely escape. It was like watching a dramatisation of a Wikipedia page.

The actors were not incompetent, though they sometimes struggled with remembering all their repetitive lines. However, they were far from being gifted enough to redeem the script. Katherine Bond as Rosalind Franklin was almost impossible to empathise with, seeming unfriendly and irritable. James Amey as John Randall looked completely terrified. Edward Garcia had some potential as James Watson, though he was saddled with the rather unfortunate line, “I’ll call her Rosy. Forgive me, I shorten people’s names because I’m American and it makes them easier to say.”

I can only imagine that this play is a reaction against overly romanticised dramatisations of the lives of famous academics. Drew clearly wanted to keep the focus on the work, rather than playing up the human-interest bits. However, the hard truth is that no one wants to watch a play where the phrase ‘X-ray crystallography’ is used 14 times in the first scene.

Franklin’s work was interesting, but this play made it seem anything but. This production is, regrettably, best avoided.